Today is the day that has come to be known as America’s unofficial holiday. Yes, that’s right, it is Super Bowl Sunday. Of course, the Super Bowl is the penultimate sports experience for most people who live in the United States. People start planning weeks in advance for their parties and get-togethers at which they eat, it is reported, more snacks than any other day of the year. It is said that more Americans watch the Super Bowl than any other program on television. In fact, over 150 million are expected to watch (that’s over half the population of the U.S.) and during that time advertisers will pay $2.4 million dollars per half minute to promote their product. The revenues alone for the entire event would be enough to fund the startup of a small country. It is an event that truly vies for the national attention.
In contrast, there are those places to which people frequent on Sundays called, in the vernacular, “churches.” While there are many Americans who claim to be Christians, not nearly as many show the kind of devotion and zeal that is seen in preparation for the Super Bowl. Oh, there are some who prepare, preachers, teachers, students of the word, but most simply decide at the last minute whether they will show up or not. While Super Bowl Sunday boasts a record number of snacks consumed, many “churches” throughout the land won’t even observe the one holy meal of which the Lord’s church partakes every Sunday (Acts 20:7). And it is quite doubtful that anyone will pay $2.4 million dollars per half minute in order to hear the greatest message ever known. These events hardly merit the attention of the local media, much less the national attention.
Yet for all of the hype surrounding Super Bowl Sunday and its events and all of the apathy toward the other fifty-one Sundays of the year and their events, just one ordinary Sunday is still more super than Super Bowl Sunday, provided that Sunday is spent in the pursuits of the Lord. For Sunday is the day that the saints of God gather in fellowship one with another to recount the apostles doctrine, break bread, and pray (Acts 2:42). It is the day that those devoted to God may return to Him that portion of blessings which is His due (1 Corinthians 16:1, 2). It is the day that a remembrance is made of God’s only begotten Son in the memorial feast that commemorates His body and blood (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Because it was on this day, Sunday, that Jesus rose triumphantly from the grave proclaiming the defeat of Satan and victory over death, that we assemble to honor, praise, and worship He whose plan redeemed mankind from inevitable and eternal defeat.
On Super Bowl Sunday, there will be winners and there will be losers. There will be those who are victorious and those who fall, ignominiously, to ruin. Some will indeed be heroes this Sunday and some will be goats. I’m not necessarily speaking of the gridiron, but of the grand field upon which the souls of men and women are gained and lost. Whose team are you rooting for this Sunday? Indeed, for whose team will you be playing eternally? There are only two sides in this contest and the odds of winning are heavily favored for one side against the other. The choice as to whether we will be winners or losers, victorious or defeated, is ours. Let us choose sides prayerfully and devote ourselves to that team whose victory is assured.